Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

scholarly journals Unravelling Plant Responses to Stress—The Importance of Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomics

Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 558
Author(s):  
J. William Allwood ◽  
Alex Williams ◽  
Henriette Uthe ◽  
Nicole M. van Dam ◽  
Luis A. J. Mur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Stress ◽  
Untargeted Metabolomics ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Enzymatic Assays ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Insect Interactions ◽  
Turn Over

Climate change and an increasing population, present a massive global challenge with respect to environmentally sustainable nutritious food production. Crop yield enhancements, through breeding, are decreasing, whilst agricultural intensification is constrained by emerging, re-emerging, and endemic pests and pathogens, accounting for ~30% of global crop losses, as well as mounting abiotic stress pressures, due to climate change. Metabolomics approaches have previously contributed to our knowledge within the fields of molecular plant pathology and plant–insect interactions. However, these remain incredibly challenging targets, due to the vast diversity in metabolite volatility and polarity, heterogeneous mixtures of pathogen and plant cells, as well as rapid rates of metabolite turn-over. Unravelling the systematic biochemical responses of plants to various individual and combined stresses, involves monitoring signaling compounds, secondary messengers, phytohormones, and defensive and protective chemicals. This demands both targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches, as well as a range of enzymatic assays, protein assays, and proteomic and transcriptomic technologies. In this review, we focus upon the technical and biological challenges of measuring the metabolome associated with plant stress. We illustrate the challenges, with relevant examples from bacterial and fungal molecular pathologies, plant–insect interactions, and abiotic and combined stress in the environment. We also discuss future prospects from both the perspective of key innovative metabolomic technologies and their deployment in breeding for stress resistance.

Resilience of plant-insect interactions in an oak lineage through Quaternary climate change

Paleobiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Su ◽  
Jonathan M. Adams ◽  
Torsten Wappler ◽  
Yong-Jiang Huang ◽  
Frédéric M. B. Jacques ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Insect Herbivory ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Fossil Flora ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Quaternary Climate ◽  
Insect Interactions ◽  
Damage Types ◽  
Modern Sample

AbstractPlant-insect interactions are vital for structuring terrestrial ecosystems. It is still unclear how climate change in geological time might have shaped plant-insect interactions leading to modern ecosystems. We investigated the effect of Quaternary climate change on plant-insect interactions by observing insect herbivory on leaves of an evergreen sclerophyllous oak lineage (QuercussectionHeterobalanus, HET) from a late Pliocene flora and eight living forests in southwestern China. Among the modern HET populations investigated, the damage diversity tends to be higher in warmer and wetter climates. Even though the climate of the fossil flora was warmer and wetter than modern sample sites, the damage diversity is lower in the fossil flora than in modern HET populations. Eleven out of 18 damage types in modern HET populations are observed in the fossil flora. All damage types in the fossil flora, except for one distinctive gall type, are found in modern HET populations. These results indicate that Quaternary climate change did not cause extensive extinction of insect herbivores in HET forests. The accumulation of a more diverse herbivore fauna over time supports the view of plant species as evolutionary “islands” for colonization and turnover of insect species.

scholarly journals Climate Change: Resetting Plant-Insect Interactions

2012 ◽  
Vol 160 (4) ◽  
pp. 1677-1685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan H. DeLucia ◽  
Paul D. Nabity ◽  
Jorge A. Zavala ◽  
May R. Berenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Insect Interactions

scholarly journals The Multifunctional Roles of Polyphenols in Plant-Herbivore Interactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1442
Author(s):  
Sukhman Singh ◽  
Ishveen Kaur ◽  
Rupesh Kariyat
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Physical Defenses ◽  
Herbivore Interactions ◽  
Insect Interactions ◽  
Plant Herbivore

There is no argument to the fact that insect herbivores cause significant losses to plant productivity in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. To counter this continuous onslaught, plants have evolved a suite of direct and indirect, constitutive and induced, chemical and physical defenses, and secondary metabolites are a key group that facilitates these defenses. Polyphenols—widely distributed in flowering plants—are the major group of such biologically active secondary metabolites. Recent advances in analytical chemistry and metabolomics have provided an opportunity to dig deep into extraction and quantification of plant-based natural products with insecticidal/insect deterrent activity, a potential sustainable pest management strategy. However, we currently lack an updated review of their multifunctional roles in insect-plant interactions, especially focusing on their insect deterrent or antifeedant properties. This review focuses on the role of polyphenols in plant-insect interactions and plant defenses including their structure, induction, regulation, and their anti-feeding and toxicity effects. Details on mechanisms underlying these interactions and localization of these compounds are discussed in the context of insect-plant interactions, current findings, and potential avenues for future research in this area.

scholarly journals Applying Machine Learning to Investigate Long Term Insect-Plant Interactions Preserved on Digitized Herbarium Specimens

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.K. Meineke ◽  
C. Tomasi ◽  
S. Yuan ◽  
K.M. Pryer
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Insect Damage ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Related Plant ◽  
Insect Interactions ◽  
Damage Type

AbstractPremise of the studyDespite the economic importance of insect damage to plants, long-term data documenting changes in insect damage (‘herbivory’) and diversity are limited. Millions of pressed plant specimens are now available online for collecting big data on plant-insect interactions during the Anthropocene.MethodsWe initiated development of machine learning methods to automate extraction of herbivory data from herbarium specimens. We trained an insect damage detector and a damage type classifier on two distantly related plant species. We experimented with 1) classifying six types of herbivory and two control categories of undamaged leaf, and 2) detecting two of these damage categories for which several hundred annotations were available.ResultsClassification models identified the correct type of herbivory 81.5% of the time. The damage classifier was accurate for categories with at least one hundred test samples. We show anecdotally that the detector works well when asked to detect two types of damage.DiscussionThe classifier and detector together are a promising first step for the automation of herbivory data collection. We describe ongoing efforts to increase the accuracy of these models to allow other researchers to extract similar data and apply them to address a variety of biological hypotheses.

Food security under global climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. 291-298
Author(s):  
Anatolii Yuzefovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate
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